The Last Word

Wednesday, 24 November 2010

Londoners are consuming less alchohol, on average, than the rest of the country as alcohol consumption declines across Britain.

53% of people in London had a drink last week compared to 68% of people in the North West and South West of the country, although alcohol related crime was highest in the capital.

This lower rate could be due to alcohol prices in London with the city being the most expensive place to buy a pint, with prices 35% higher than in the North-East of England.

Only 17% of Londoners drank on five or more days last week, an average that is lower than in Yorkshire, East Midlands and the South and East of England. However, only 13% of people drank this regularly in the North East of England.

It is said that in the first half of this year, the amount we consume per head went down by more than 8% to 3.81 litres. This is the steepest drop in alcohol consumption since 1948 where it fell by 11% in a year according to the British Beer and Pub Association.

Friday, 5 November 2010

I decided to photograph Preston North End's Deepdale stadium. I captured the front of the stadium as in shot you can see the club crest that clearly identifies the stadium and also encorporates the floodlight which helps to indicate that this is an image of a football stadium. For the skills test, I have cropped this image to three different sizes (pixels) using Adobe Photshop Elements 8.0.

100 x 100 Thumbnail

The first crop is a thumbnail picture. The image is almost exactly the same as the original image, only smaller. This is ideal for a small news story with the image adding extra depth at the head of the article.

400(wide) x 300(high)

The second crop captures the main feature of the image, being the club crest. It is similar to the original image but is slightly cropped to focus more on the central features.

200(wide) x 500(high)

The final crop focuses in on the club crest. Everything around it is cropped and it is clear from the image what we are looking at even without the rest of the image.

Thursday, 9 September 2010

A quick glance at the Bundesliga table in Germany and you would be forgiven for having to look twice at the current standings. It may be just two games into the new season but Hoffenheim are sitting pretty at the top of the table followed closely by newly promoted FC. Kaiserslautern. Champions League finalists Bayern Munich lie in twelfth place with Hamburger SV the only side of real recognition to have started with a 100% record.Ex Manchester United and Real Madrid striker Ruud Van Nistelrooy leads the goal scoring table for Hamburg alongside VFL Wolfsburg’s Edin Dzecko, SC Freiburg’s’ Papiss Demba Cisse and FC. Kaiserslautern’s Srdjan Lakic with three goals. Dutchman Nistelrooy, who is still currently United’s tenth all-time scorer, has impressed since arriving at Hamburg and is showing ex-Madrid team-mate Raul how to perform in Germany’s elite league. ‘Superstar’ Raul has managed just one shot on target and 36 touches of the ball in 153 minutes on the pitch for Schalke and will hope to improve in the near future, starting with a tough away day in Hoffenheim.

It was no surprise that Nistelrooy adapted quickly to the German style of football, which is somewhat slower than the pace of the English Premier League and La Liga. The Dutchman terrorised defences in England and, despite not being as overly effective in Spain, still managed to hit the back of the net 46 times in 68 appearances. Spaniard, Raul, has been a top marksman throughout his career and it shouldn’t take long before the goals start to flow, however, with the end of his career approaching, perhaps this is the beginning of the end for the ex-Galactico.

From old to new and it’s time to introduce 21-year-old striker Marko Arnautovic. The young Austrian has signed a 4-year contract with Werder Bremen after spending a year on loan at Inter Milan under Jose Mourinho. Arnautovic had a frustrating season in Italy spending much of his time on the sidelines but after scoring two and assisting another in his first game for Bremen, the future is looking bright for the Austrian international. Signing from FC Twente, the winger come striker will be looking to curb his ‘dubious temperament’ and focus on his natural talent after being compared to Cristiano Ronaldo in German newspaper ‘Welt’. His new coach, Thomas Schaaf, has already described the youngster as ‘something special’ and Austria’s most capped player, Andreas Herzog, went as far as saying that Arnautovic is’ the best player Austria has produced in the past 30 years’.

Tuesday, 7 September 2010

Qualification for the 2012 Cup of Nations begins in the Dark Continent.

See the champions, take the field now, you define us, make us feel proud.

Away from the mayhem of European Championship qualifying, the African stars of the 2010 World Cup were once again lining up for their national sides. The likes of Asamoah Gyan and Siphiwe Tshabalala appeared in the first set of competitive matches since the finals in South Africa.

The tournament, which is to be co-hosted by Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, will be the 28th edition with the winner going on to compete in the 2013 Fifa Confederations Cup in Brazil.

There were comfortable wins for Nigeria, Cameroon, South Africa, Ivory Coast and Ghana whilst Egypt were surprisingly held to a 1-1 draw against Sierra Leone.

Other notable results were Botswana’s 1-0 win away at Tunisia and Sudan triumphing 2-0 against a strong Congo side.

World Cup quarter-finalists Ghana look to be one of the favourites early on along with Ivory Coast, a side looking to recover from a premature exit in South Africa this summer.

Tuesday, 22 June 2010

World Cup 2006 Runners-up France have bowed out in South Africa after a 2-1 loss to the hosts at the Free State Stadium.

After a poor group stage showing, which produced just one goal for the French national side, the boys in Blue must travel home to a country which will not be welcoming them back with open arms.

It must be said that the French never looked likely to perform well this summer. After scraping through the qualifying stages and 'cheating' their way past the Republic of Ireland, the off-field scuffles, during the World Cup, managed to affect the French performances on a massive scale.

Florent Malouda was dropped for the first game against Uruguay after apparently being 'held back' from French coach Domenech during a team meeting. The French never looked dangerous against the South American side, and ended up lucky to finish with a 0-0 stalemate.

Malouda was back in for the next game against Mexico but the French side looked like a team with no confidence in their manager. They went down 2-0 and looked unlikely, from that stage, to qualify for the second round.

More drama was to come before their final game when Nicolas Anelka was sent home by the France National Team for 'abusive language' aimed at Domenech, the man central to this catastrophe. This led to a strike from the players who refused to train just days before the clash with South Africa. French Captain, Patrice Evra, was also filmed ranting at a French Coach. He was subsequently dropped and lost his captaincy for the final group game.

It is awful to see such talented players fall well below thier potentials however, in Mexico and Uruguay, we have two teams brimming full of quality, progressing to the second round. Also, with England's game against Slovenia tomorrow afternoon, it is time for the country to bring out the flags once more and cheer our boys to victory and a place in the knock-out stages...